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Thursday, July 23, 2015

Review: The Ark by Laura Liddell Nolan

The Ark

By Laura Liddell Nolen

Blurb: There’s a meteor headed for Earth, and there is only one way to survive.

It’s the final days of earth, and sixteen-year-old Char is right where she belongs: in prison. With her criminal record, she doesn’t qualify for a place on an Ark, one of the five massive bioships designed to protect earth’s survivors during the meteor strike that looks set to destroy the planet. Only a select few will be saved – like her mom, dad, and brother – all of whom have long since turned their backs on Char.

If she ever wants to redeem herself, Char must use all the tricks of the trade to swindle her way into outer space, where she hopes to reunite with her family, regardless of whether they actually ever want to see her again, or not . . .

Genres: Young Adult Dystopian

Publication Date: March 26, 2015

Series: N/A at this point

Pages: 239

My Rating: 2 stars

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Ark was one of those books that I definitely would have enjoyed if I had read it earlier. By that, I mean, if I hadn't read so many dystopian novels that they all begin, at this point, to blend together, unless the premise is something that I haven't read before.

The Ark is something I have read before, however. The 100 has a premise somewhat like it. So do a few lesser known Dystopians, mostly indies, that I read very early after starting YA. So, I can't say it really stood out to me, and that definitely hurt it. Plus, it just has some of the formula that is getting re-used and re-used in YA, so that didn't hurt the cause.

I thought that I might like Char. She doesn't seem, at first glance, to be the typical YA heroine. She isn't, really. She's the typical dystopian heroine.

What I mean by that is; her life sucks majorly. It keeps on sucking. And her attitude about the suckishness that is her life is the same as most Dystopian heroines; she's rather pessimistic, at the beginning, there's not *much* emotion in her at all, she's independent...I know, I know. These don't seem like bad traits, necessarily. But when every single heroine in Dystopian seems to have them...I get peeved.

The plot was predictable at times, for the most part. I mean, there were one or two things that I didn't see coming, but come on. You know that Char is going to have to make it on the Ark, so there goes that suspense. You know which characters are going to be love interests and you know that the story probably won't end happily BECAUSE THIS IS DYSTOPIAN ONLY THE LAST TEN PAGES OF THE LAST BOOK IN THE SERIES ARE EVER HAPPY.

I think, also, that part of the reason I didn't *love* this was because of me, and solely me. It is just really dark at times AND I COULDN'T TAKE IT. The book mentions babies on Earth that don't get on the Arks, and then pages later, Char sees the whole planet die. Dead children tend to be the trigger for when books start to enter the truly dark territory for me, and usually, in Dystopian, I am able to block it out, but when it gets mentioned in such a blatant, not-skirted-around way, I have trouble. And that was one of these times.

Of course, there were moments I liked. Isaiah and Char's relationship is definitely interesting to read about, albeit a bit...unhealthy. Isaiah was a very fleshed out character; just when I loved him I hated him and just when I hated him...I loved him then hated him again. The other boy in this book, Eren, is nowhere half as interesting as Isaiah. In fact he's kind of basic. I don't have much to say about Eren other than that. Basic just about sums him up.

I'm going to take a break from Dystopian for a little bit because I think I've kind of gotten swamped by this genre. The Ark definitely suffered from this. A lot of the complaints I had with it were "I've read this before" rather than it flat-out sucking.